The Restaurant Guys

What Makes Rioja Riojanissima

Hola Mis Amigos,

Many moons ago, when I was a young man with a full head of hair, I first traveled to Europe, armed with a manilla folder full of letters of introduction from Mr. Kevin Zraly. Some of my younger readers may not know what the heck I'm talking about, so I shall explain. Back in the analog days, when international phone calls cost $20 - $30 (equivalent to twice that today) and mail required a stamp and cameras had film, the only way to "friend" someone was to...well...actually meet them. The only way to let someone know you "liked" them was to tell them. And if you wanted to Link In with someone that was part of your friend's "network," one might carry a letter of introduction. And so it was back in the dark ages. Kevin was in charge of the most important wine program in America and the largest restaurant wine cellar in the world. This packet of letters was indispensable to my early education. While this method of friending and linking in was quite a bit more arduous, it was also treated with a greater deal of gravitas; and the levels of kindness and consideration with which I was treated by some of the greatest winemakers in the world still boggles my mind. There were up-sides to the analog era!

The first stop on my six months of European exploration was Spain. The first foot I set in Europe fell in Madrid, a city I love to this day. I was blown away by the great wines of Rioja and their centuries old traditions. Sadly, since then, many of the producers I met on that trip have adopted much more modern wine-making practices. Often, these modern wines are very good, technically correct and much more forward, friendly and accessible to an uneducated palate than the old traditional style. But to me, that's not what makes Rioja Rioja.

This is why I am so excited about the wines from Bodegas Riojanas and why Mark and I are super pleased to welcome Santiago Frias and you to dine with us on Wednesday, October 9. The Artacho family, of Bodegas Riojanas has been making fantastic wine in the region since the 18th century. Their wines reflect the character and history of the place. They are age-worthy and also delicious when young. They are Riojana. I say they are Riojanissima, or "very very Rioja."

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Friday Evening Cocktail: The Shrub

We had a very successful run with some drinks made with Melon Shrub over the summer. We've switched gears into fall and now we've concocted a Pear and Apple Shrub. What, you ask, is a shrub? It is an ancient way of preserving the fruits of summer. Basically vinegar is the preservative in a juice made of fresh fruit. The tartness of the vinegar and the sweetness of the fruit is a lovely counterpoint. In colonial times a shrub might be used as an ingredient in a dessert or even a savory dish. Adding a little rum and drinking it was not uncommon. Adding a lot of rum was even more common. The thing is, great shrubs work with a variety of spirits. At the Dale DeGroff cocktail dinner, we made a shrub with the very exclusive Hudson Spirits Manhattan Rye. It was amazing. Of course, that's a very expensive spirit to be making into a cocktail. That's the thing about shrubs though, the spirit shines through. So we're offering a Friday Shrubfest. Friday, The Hudson Manhattan Rye Autumn Shrub will be offered for $12 (usually would be $20). We're also offering 1/3 off any other spirit at the bar that you would like to try with our Pear and Apple Shrub. It's versatile and interesting and you will love it. We hope that you will join us.

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The Spirits Project: Aberfeldy 21 Year Single Highland Malt

Making the experience of super-luxury spirits crazily affordable and accessible!
Read more about the Spirits project.

• Suggested retail price: $199 per bottle
• We will pour an ounce for $6
  

Dewar's origins date to the mid-19th century. Founder John Dewar was born in 1805 in the small village of Dull, near Aberfeldy, Scotland, where he grew up on a farm. After an apprenticeship as a joiner, he moved in his early 20s to Perth, where he began working for his uncle's wine and spirits wholesaling firm. He became a partner in 1837, but in 1846 decided to go into business on his own and began blending whisky from several different producers to give it a mellower flavor. Dewar was one of the first to sell his beverage in a glass bottle with the brand name embossed on the front, rather than in a ceramic container.

John Dewar Senior passed away in 1880 and was succeeded by his sons John Alexander and Tommy. It was Tommy who made the name of Dewar known world wide. He was an extrovert and showman whose escapades were not appreciated by his competitors, but by 1894 his enterprise had established 32 agents in no fewer than 26 countries. By this time, the firm had built a new headquarters next to the railway station in Perth from which a private siding led to their premises. Accordingly, Aberfeldy Distillery was also built next to the railway.

Built by the Dewar family in 1898 on the edge of Highland Perthshire, Aberfeldy Distillery produces a sophisticated Highland single malt Scotch whisky. Reserved for years as the heart of DEWAR'S blends, limited quantities of Aberfeldy single malt whisky are now available. This 21 year old lies at the core of the Aberfeldy range and is something of a flagship for the brand. This bottling was heralded as the Best Mainland Single Malt at the World Whisky Awards 2007. On Thursday at 6:30 precisely, we will open precisely one bottle. When it's gone, it's gone. We hope you can join us.

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Friday Evening Cocktail: Sloe Gin and Seamus Heaney

When I started tending bar back in 1986, I encountered sloe gin that was pretty much neutral spirits, artificial color and artificial flavor. It was there almost exclusively as a necessary component to the Alabama Slammer and so was rarely even picked up on its own. It had to share a hand with at least one or maybe two (depending on the skill of the bartender) other bottles, while slopping the sugary, fake, multi-ingredient headache maker together in a tall glass.

It wasn't until I went to Ireland for the first time that I encountered real sloe gin. The sloe berries are harvested in the fall from blackthorn bushes. They're much to bitter too eat on their own, but they can be made either into jam or into sloe gin. The latter is made by steeping them with some sugar in gin. The bottles are sealed in the fall and agitated (sometimes by putting under the table at dinner for the kids to kick around), and not opened until Christmas: Not the stuff of Alabama Slammers. Plymouth gin was the first commercial sloe gin to be re-introduced in America a few years back. We were, of course, the first bar in NJ to carry it.

This year, we lost a great poet. Seamus Heaney was Poet Laureate of Ireland. He wrote some of the most profound and moving Irish verse of the latter 20th century. But here's one that I first discovered attached to a bottle of the home-made stuff that was given to me as a present.

Sloe Gin

The clear weather of juniper
darkened into winter.
She fed gin to sloes
and sealed the glass container.

When I unscrewed it
I smelled the disturbed
tart stillness of a bush
rising through the pantry.

When I poured it
it had a cutting edge
and flamed
like Betelgeuse.

I drink to you
in smoke-mirled, blue-black,
polished sloes, bitter
and dependable.

Friday evening we will serve the Sloe Gin Fizz and also The Blackthorne Cocktail for just $8. If you can recite the above poem from memory, there will be no prize, but we will be impressed, and your soul will be enriched. We will pass hors d'oevres from 9 PM and the most tasteful cocktail enthusiasts of The Garden State will be in attendance, as is their custom. We hope you can join us.

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A Final Sunday on The Sidewalk: Lobster and Honeybees

Honey is a product of summer. In winter, the bees all cuddle up and huddle/wiggle their way through the long cold winter. Good beekeepers leave enough honey in the hive to fuel their entire winters dance (bad ones substitute GMO corn syrup, but don't get me going in that direction). One of the most thoughtful and conscientious beekeepers in the country is Todd Hardie of Barr Hill Farm and Caledonia Spirits. He's my favorite beekeeper though, because he's the only guy I know who turns his organic and natural honey into Gin and Vodka. Now THAT's my kind of beekeeper! What's more the product (gin especially) is completely fantastically wonderful and unique.

Todd himself will be here sampling his Gin and Vodka. We'll be making it into cocktails and he'll also bring some of the best honey you have EVER tasted. When you meet him, you will see that he is the kind and gentle sort that you would expect a beekeeper to be. We are just the kind of decadent rogues to shake or stir his gentle products into ROCKING cocktails. The Bees Knees, as you might imagine, is unlike any other and a Straight-Up Gin Martini is ethereal.

With Todd's excellent spirits, we will have our final Lobster Bake of the summer, replete with lobster rolls, lobster bisque, lobster mac-and-cheese, whole lobsters and lots of other lobstery goodness! Todd's honey makes a fantastic dessert with black mission figs, and Tahitian vanilla ice cream. Todd will be sampling Gin, Vodka and Honey and we'll have several cocktails, including the Bee's Knees and Small Gin Martini's for $6. We're seating from 4 until 9 PM. Make reservations by calling 732-828-4444.

The Spirits Project: Talisker 25 Year Island Malt Whisky (Skye)

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• We will pour an ounce for $6
  

Talisker is an Island Malt, and the only distillery on the specific island of Skye. Its quite rough weather up there and quite cold in the wintertime. The climate is extremely marine influenced and I find that in the whisky as well. The distillery has sat on the shores of Loch Harport for 175 years. A fire in 1960 was devastating, but the old stills were meticulously recreated and the post-fire whisky is reported to have remarkable continuity with pre-fire Taliskers.

Talisker's whisky are assertive, with distinctive peat and salt and sometimes almost a seaweed that is just bracing and delicious. When you speak of something being particular to the Isle of Skye you call it "Skylan." This is a uniquely Skylan achievement! Thursday evening, we will open this extraordinary 25-year bottling at precisely 6:30. When it's gone, it's gone. I do hope you can join us.

We will open one bottle at 6:30 precisely. When it's gone, it's gone.

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Rioja Wine Dinner with Bodegas Riojanas - Wednesday, October 9

Spain is one of the most exciting food and wine destinations in the world. Rioja is the most universally recognized and respected wine region in Spain. The Artacho family, of Bodegas Riojanas has been making some of the most respected wines of the region since the 18th century. The name may seem confusing, for Bodegas Riojanas translates somewhat directly "Rioja Cellars." When the denominacion was established in 1925, The Artacho family had been using this mark and so they were permitted to keep using it. Only their wines can use it to this day. Their wines are deeply rooted in the traditions of Rioja and age beautifully, but they also offer more forward fruit and accessibility than some of the strictly traditionalist producers. They're really elegant, beautiful, rich and complex wines.

I had the distinct pleasure of dining with Santiago Frías, Director General of Bodegas Riojanas, this past summer. We tasted through a vertical and horizontal selection of his wines over lunch. I was blown away. I have encountered these wines only sparingly over the years and never in a comprehensive tasting. Wow. These wines are amazing and so is this man. I asked him to come to New Brunswick so that he might dine with all of us and share his own insights on a selection of his extraordinary wines. I invite you to join us. These wines are a real discovery and they're also exceedingly food-friendly. We had a ton of fun putting together a menu to surprise and delight.

Please do join Santiago Frías and Mark, Lou and me for dinner on Wednesday October 9th at 7 PM

The menu will be as follows:

Hors d’Oeuvres
Vino Tinto Joven “Canchales” 2011

Jamon Iberico de Bellota & Iberico Belly - Piquillo Pepper, Smoked Garlic and Beans
Rioja Reserva 2006; Vina Albina
Rioja Reserva 2006; Monte Real Reserva

Roasted Quail - Wit Carrots, Cooked Slow and Low, Hazelnut Potatoes
Rioja Gran Reservaa 2001; Vina Albina

Lamb Shanks - Braised with Red Wine, Chorizo and Garlic
Rioja Gran Reserva 1998; Monte Real

Black Mission Figs
Chestnut Honey & Vanilla Ice Cream

$139 per person plus tax and service

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The PTA (Peaches, Tomatoes, and Apples) Tasting Menu

Hello My Friends,

This gray weather of this morning was a harbinger of the season I suppose. Mark's kids are back to school and soon there will be PTA meetings for him. I will switch from Cognac to Calvados, Sherry to Port and from Martinis to Manhattans. The Restaurant Guys lead two very different lives. Before it goes though, we have a few opportunities to revel in the last gasps of summer. See our PTA menu!

We are still picking corn and tomatoes, and the apple harvest has begun. All of that is normal, but due to this summers unusual weather peaches are quite late. They're usually gone by now and rarely crossover with apples. So we've come up with our own PTA tasting menu. That's Peaches, Tomatoes and Apples, of course, in celebration of this rare confluence of events. We're also getting some particularly great black mission figs and there should be one last shipment of black truffles from Australia. So, in short, it's a very fine time to dine with us.

This tasting menu is offered in Stage Left, seven nights a week until the peaches are done (which will be soon).

PTA (Stage Left Style)

Garlind Farm’s Heirloom Tomato Salad
Goat Cheese and Avocado Mousse

Day Boat Scallops:
Cornmilk, Thai Basil Peaches Red Curry Pork Belly

Seared Foie Gras
House-Preserved Nectarines in Cointreau
Or
Honey Crisp Apple & Duck Confit Salad

Seared Duck Breast: Black Mission Figs and Melted Leek Tart

Baked Caramel Apple Streusel

$79 per person

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The Cocktail Dinner with Dale DeGroff and Hudson Whiskey Master Distiller Gabel Erenzo

Eighteen years ago this September, we hosted New Jersey's first cocktail dinner of the modern era with our friend Dale DeGroff. We would like to invite our cocktail-loving friends from around the globe to come celebrate those early days of the fluttering, liquor-soaked butterfly wings that created the ripples that went on to become the worldwide hurricane of the cocktail revolution. Dale will be with us again on Friday, September 20th, as will distiller Gabel Erenzo, with every one of his Hudson Whiskeys. We'll open the festivities with our own lovely twist on an Americano, made with the delicious Solerno Sicilian Blood Orange Liqueur with Q-Tonic, layered over crushed ice in a long frosty glass.

Each course will feature a small taste of a Hudson Whiskey and then a cocktail made with that spirit. This will be THE most extraordinary cocktail event The Garden State has seen since, well...18 years ago September. Please join us Friday, September 20th. Oh and don't forget cigars on the patio afterward (weather permitting). I do believe this will be a sellout, so please reserve early. [email protected] or 732-828-4444. Seating is limited so please reserve as soon as possible. 732-828-4444

Hors d’oeuvres
The Blood Orange Americano with Solerno Blood Orange Liqueur

Heirloom Tomatoes with Avocado Puree, Pumpkinseed Oil and Bacon Dust
The Contrary Mary (Corn Whiskey, Tomato and Avocado)

Charcuterie: Terrines of Foie and Venison with Wild Boar Sausage
The Bocadillo (Rye, Two Sherries and Bitters)

Roasted Long Island Duck: Roasted Breast, Confit and Truffled Duck Egg
The Duck Press (Single Malt & Rye Whiskey, Applejack, Preserved Cherries and Bitters)

Sticky Toffee Pudding
The 21st Century Cocktail (Baby Bourbon, Nectarine Cointreau, Chartreuse, Bitters)

$125 Per person plus tax and service.

Event beings with Hors d'Oeuvres at 7 PM

Make reservations Reservations at 732-828-4444 or [email protected]

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The Central Jersey Jazz Festival is Across the Street Saturday Sept 14.

Our friends at the New Brunswick Jazz Project have brought the CJJF to New Brunswick for the first time. It will be all afternoon next Sunday at Monument Square Park right across the street. The cost of music is $0. Pretty good deal if you ask me. Find out more about the Jazz Festival here. Music is from 1PM to 6PM and we will be opening Stage Left Bar and the Sidewalk Cafe. We're sponsoring this year's event because it's just another feather in the cap of the ongoing development of this great city. The Jazz Project programs great music all year long throughout the city. You should check them out at www.nbjp.com. And come to The Festival next Saturday!

After all, a city without music and art is just a collection of buildings.

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